Britain Posts Troops at Heathrow Airport

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, February 10, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Troops and light tanks were deployed at Heathrow Airport Tuesday to boost security after police warned of a potential terrorist threat to London by the al-Qaida group.

Police said Osama bin Laden's network might time attacks to coincide with the end of this week's Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. The religious festival takes place Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, but most Muslim communities continue celebrations for several more days.

"From time to time, it is necessary to raise levels of security activity. We think it is prudent to do so now," police said in a statement.

Britain is Washington's main ally in its confrontation with Iraq and the security warning for Heathrow comes after the Bush administration on Friday raised the national terror alert from yellow to orange.

Some 450 soldiers were stationed at Heathrow, Britain's busiest airport, and security was being tightened at other, unspecified locations in central London, according to police and the defense ministry.

A police spokesman said it was the first time troops had been deployed to guard Heathrow since 1994, when the Irish Republican Army tried to bomb the runways.

Troops from the Grenadier Guards regiment and the Household Cavalry had been assigned to security duties using Scimitar light tanks, the ministry said. The units, which guard Buckingham Palace, home of Queen Elizabeth II, are highly trained combat troops.

"This morning at about 6 a.m. the police took a number of measures to strengthen security in London. The most visible element of this arrangement is at Heathrow," airport officials said in a statement.

A police spokesman said the army is not normally used to guard Heathrow, west of London. He wouldn't say whether the army was being deployed at other sites, or how long the operation would last.

"The strengthened security, which is likely to be most visible to the public at Heathrow Airport, relates to a potential threat to the capital," the police statement said. "The heightened arrangements include the use of military personnel in support of the Metropolitan Police."

Police said there was a "possibility … that al-Qaida and associated networks" would use the end of the Eid al-Adha festival to mount attacks.

On Tuesday, a radical Islamic activist warned people to stay away from government buildings and financial institutions, saying radical Muslims were prepared to act as suicide bombers.

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, a leader of the small Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, said Tuesday that al-Qaida supporters in Britain might carry out attacks.

"I would warn people to take precautions. Do not go into government buildings do not be in any financial institutions, keep away from these locations," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Police in Britain have arrested several terrorist suspects since the Jan. 5 discovery of the deadly poison ricin in a north London apartment.

Meanwhile, an unemployed computer programmer was ordered Tuesday to stand trial for allegedly possessing terrorism-related books and documents. He was also charged with possessing books suspected of being "for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism."

Mohammed Azam, a Briton of Pakistani origin, was arrested in Luton, 30 miles north of London, last September. Prosecutors say he had documents outlining how to make bombs and weapons.

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